With procedural worlds, fantastic cooperative combat, and a storyline that makes you care about the entire Bergson family, Children of Morta represents the best example of games as art. There are still a few months to go in 2019, but Children of Morta is looking like my Indie Game of the Year.

Children of Morta is a resoundingly impactful, thoughtful, and humanizing rogue-lite with an all-consuming narrative you simply can’t stop chasing. Even with its dark, fantasy filled setting it tells a very grounded story about family, love, and sacrifice in the face of adversity. The voice acting is spot on, the complex pixel-art is gorgeous to pause and behold, and combat feels powerful with everyone in the family. The dungeons are vast enough to compel you to explore without wasting your time on endless corridors, and the game strikes a perfect balance between entry-level rogue-lite and epic RPG that makes it stand tall over your average rogue-lite. We’ve waited a long time for Children of Morta and the wait was more than worth it.

Children of Morta takes the mechanics from the roguelike genre but manages to craft a truly narrative experience. An unique game that offers fun gameplay mixed with an emotional story full of heart. One of the greatest surprises of 2019 so far.

While Children of Morta‘s surprising flexibility — without too comprising on the challenge of its gameplay — is one to take note of, it’s Dead Mage’s ability to find harmony with so many [figurative] moving parts that’s more impressive. Don’t let the tag or implication of hollowness throw you, Children of Morta — like Dead Cells before it — is an addictive, well-orchestrated and brilliantly-devised take on the roguelike template.

Children of Morta is a resoundingly beautiful game that tells a compelling story of growth, forgiveness and love through a set of deep of satisfying rogue-like mechanics that only kept me invested in the gameplay but the journey of The Bergsons throughout my playtime.

Children of Morta is one of the best rogulite games I played in a while, so I can't recommend it enough to those who love the genre. It's easy to pick up and the story, even though it's a bit on the generic side, will keep you hooked till the end (yes, there's actually an end to the story).

Behind Children of Morta's pixel art, lies an excellent hack’n’slash which has little to envy to the pillars of the genre. The RPG aspect is well defined, and the growth of the characters is never trivial.

Children of Morta is charming, engaging and fun. It's absolutely worth playing if you're a fan of the genre, and the Bergsons are one of the best family units in gaming. The world and characters draw you in, and the simple but engaging roguelike gameplay keeps you there. It doesn't break any molds, but it doesn't try to. Instead, the title focuses on offering what it has with a mirror polish. It has some problems and can feel repetitive at times, but any sense of weariness is lost the next time a beautiful cut scene begins.

Children of Morta is a fun but derivative, stylish and elegant story driven roguelite. Although the setting is quite usual, the story of the Bergsons family is heartwarming and moving, and that makes this game quite unique.

A finely crafted game that knows what it wants to be and succeeds on almost every level. The fluid action, beautiful art style and engaging story will keep you hooked for at least 15 hours, but once the final boss is done, there aren’t many reasons to return. Enjoy it while it lasts.

While Children of Morta stays pretty solidly in the tradition of recent RPG/roguelikes, its packaging — graphics, design, story and characters — elevate it above the pack and players who have grown weary of the genre will find it refreshing. It’s challenging without (usually) being unfair and while there is plenty of varied combat, there is a story with some heart and soul for any player looking for a break from constant hack and slash. It’s still a roguelike, so any player intolerant of the genre’s “die and try again” conceit will not suddenly become enlightened, but fans of the form will enjoy one of the more interesting and appealing examples in recent memory.

Children of Morta is an exceptionally well made ARPG, where the same amount of attention has been given to all its aspects, from the way it plays, to the way it's story is told, to the way it looks. Those in search for something with hundreds of hours of additional content should better look elsewhere, but the pleasure of combat (solo or co-op), and the addictive nature of rogue-likes, combined with the strong narrative, and the fantastic ultra-detailed pixel art style, gives a pretty good reason to put this on your wishlist - NOW!

Dungeon-based roguelite fans have a new adventure they should add to their library. The core gameplay isn’t very original, but its coop mode, its elaborate narrative and its great setting make it very, very interesting.

Children of Morta would be a perfectly good linear dungeon crawler; it would also be a pretty good roguelike. But it genuinely manages to strike the perfect balance between the two, offering addictive, challenging and varied gameplay, as well as strong narrative, characters and world building. Besides some difficulty issues with the two-player mode and the melee characters, it’s a pretty great game. Plus the spirit you rescue at the end of the first area looks like a giant floating vagina, so what more could you want?

Children of Morta doesn’t set the genre ablaze, move it in any new directions or do much to widen its reach, beyond letting more casual players grind their way through impasses. In structure and presentation it’s reminiscent of last year’s Moonlighter, but without the unique shopkeeping mechanic which set that apart. That said, there’s nothing wrong with a well-accomplished genre archetype. Do you enjoy rogue-lites? You’re pretty much guaranteed to like this.

Perhaps the area where Children of Morta stands out the most is with the intricate art and the storybook narrative; the high-resolution landscapes and environment look fantastic at multiple distance levels. As do the creatures, characters, bosses, and other animated contraptions. Although this review has used the word dungeon countless times, each new location has a distinct feel all its own. In the end the focus on story, and the bond between family members, shines through – giving Children of Morta a sense of intimate to match the grand.

Children of Morta might be quite predictable and even a bit uninspired when it comes to battling the hordes of enemies, but it nevertheless succeeds in providing a fresh experience for the genre of roguelites. How it succeeds in that? By investing in developing its characters and creating actual bonding with the members of the Bergson’s family, not a mean feat for the genre.

Those who prefer a good story even at the expense of inadequate game mechanics, will experience a different experience with the Bergson family, not revolutionary or particularly memorable, but nevertheless capable of making their mark.

As with most things, Children of Morta will probably get some substantive updates in the coming months, but it currently pales in comparison to other action roguelikes and won’t hold most gamers’ attention for too long.

My opinion of Children Of Morta has improved, and I can see it finding a happy audience. But if I wasn’t reviewing it I doubt I’d have got there. It leads with its worst foot and you have to grind for hours to drag the other one into the dance.